83 



NOAA MARINE POLLUTION PROGRAM FUNDING SUMMARY 



[In millions of dollars] 



Fiscal year- 



MESA (RD): 



New York Bight 



Puget Sound 



Ocean dumping (RD) 



Habitat investigations (F) 



Great Lakes (RD) 



Sea grant (RD) 



Microconstituents (F) 



Ocean engineering (RD) 



Long term effects (RD) 



Public Law 95-273 (PP, RD, OAS); 



Section 4 



Section 5 



Section 6 



Section 8 



Hazardous materials response (RD) 



Total 25.8 29.1 



Mr. Studds. I guess, fundamentally, the most obvious question is: 

 So what? We have the first plan now. As you say, it has an 

 extremely nice cover. 



The real question is: What is any different in the field of ocean 

 pollution research and monitoring than it would have been, had we 

 not enacted this act in the first place? Has it really made a differ- 

 ence of substance, in your judgment? 



Mr. Walsh. I believe it has, for one simple reason. Before the 

 legislation was passed, it is fair to say that no one in the Federal 

 Government had any idea of what was going on in this field. 



Now that we have an idea of what is going on, and we have also 

 taken the time to identify what our needs ought to be. We have a 

 far better basis for making planning and budgeting decisions than 

 we did in the past. 



What might have happened in the past is that the field staff of 

 NOAA or EPA would decide to see if they could sell a program to 

 their bosses. The program then might have come up the system. 

 The bosses would not have had enough time to look at it, and by 

 the time it was approved, no one could have been assured of what 

 they had approved. 



With this plan, we give the decisionmakers at the senior manage- 

 ment level, as well as the budget level, an opportunity to look at 

 the budget recommendations that come up from the field. The 

 senior managment can now say, "If I am going to approve this 

 research I want you to assure me that the following agency does 

 not do it, and that it is aimed in the right direction." It is an 

 extremely useful document for that purpose. 



I find it particularly useful when assessing requests that come to 

 me for funding. Sometimes these requests reach $100 million. 

 Before this document, I had a heck of a time. I might have called 

 up somebody I knew for information. But this document is so 

 useful for me. It is almost indispensable for a manager. It helps us 

 identify the areas that need to be addressed. 



